Business

The Flo monitor arm from Herman Miller, Inc., has been chosen to receive a 2010 “Red Dot” award for product design. Considered by many the largest and most distinguished international design competition, the Red Dot program dates to 1955 and includes three areas of judging: product design, communication design, and design concept. In 2010 there were almost 14,000 entries from 68 countries, with more than 4,400 products from 60 countries entered into the product design category.

Flo is a self-powered dynamic monitor arm that allows a flat screen to be used in either an upright viewing position, at desktop level as a touch screen, or anywhere in between.

The X-Trail with the Gentex RCD Mirror is offered as optional or standard equipment on multiple trim levels throughout Europe.

“Nissan has offered the RCD Mirror as an accessory on a number of different vehicles in North America but the X-Trail is the first factory-installed program with the automaker,” stated Enoch Jen, Gentex Senior Vice President.

Sally Laukitis, Executive Director of the Holland Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, was named "CVB Star of the Year" at the 2011 Governor's Conference on Tourism. She was one of eleven state hospitality leaders honored at the "Stars of the Industry" awards dinner Monday, March 21 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites in Kalamazoo.

Laukitis has served as Executive Director of the Holland Area Convention & Visitors Bureau since 1994. She was cited for her current work as President of the Tourism Industry Coalition of Michigan (TICOM), and the Michigan Association of Convention and Visitor's Bureaus, as well as her ongoing involvement in the tourism industry both locally and regionally.

CityFlats Hotel will be holding a job fair on Monday, March 14 at the franchise's downtown Holland location at 61 East 7th St. Hotel administrators will be available to meet with potential candidates between 9:00am and 12:00pm and between 1:00pm and 4:00pm in the hotel's lobby.

Job fair attendees are encouraged to bring resumes and should be prepared to fill out an application. Applicants who meet position requirements will be contacted after the job fair to schedule interviews.

Kenowa Industries specializes in equipment-handling solutions for companies in need, as well as fabricating customized equipment to make those solutions possible and creating designs to tie it all together. So it seems only fitting that Kenowa has created a customized solution for its own business strategy.

The privately held company with facilities in Holland and Lansing once relied almost exclusively on automotive-related clients, and when the auto industry began to stagnate, so did Kenowa. In 2004, the company lost its bank financing, but was able to negotiate an agreement with Huntington Bank days before Kenowa was scheduled to close its doors.

Clearly, it was time for a custom solution.

"In 2004 and 2005, the company made a concentrated effort to look outside of the auto industry," says Mark Doyle, sales manager and spokesman for Kenowa.

GRAND RAPIDS—December 17, 2010—Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women (GROW) recently secured funding to pilot a small-business microloan program, the goal of which is to provide loans ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 to qualified women who own and operate small businesses in greater Grand Rapids and surrounding areas.

Whether for computers, storefront improvements or additional capacity building, microloans provided by GROW can be used for any business asset. Entrepreneur Deborah Tacoma will invest her loan in a website redesign for Freedomwand.com, a Zeeland-based company that provides home health products for individuals with limitations or disabilities.

CASCADE, MI - Travel through an airport and notice all the people racing for any available electrical outlet. Passengers who need to charge their laptops and smart phones have limited options at many airports around the country. This could change if office furniture maker Herman Miller gets its way.

Herman Miller tested a prototype power strip designed to attach to the company's passenger seats in the terminal at the Gerald R Ford International Airport in Cascade last week. The Zeeland company manufactured the passenger seats in the waiting areas at the Ford Airport and numerous other airports across the country.